Page 403 - Records of Bahrain (7) (ii)_Neat

Legal affairs and justice, 1952-1957 793

5
he wqo at the time on good terms, and whose wife was I
childless, There was no contract or legal formality, The

neighbour and hio wife looked after the girl until she was
” ;
about six. Meanwhile the father fyat} married again and had
other children by hio oeoond wife (ae vfell as an older daughter
by hie first).
He claimed to resume custody pf tho girl, who was

living alone with the neighbour's This woman had
become attached to the girl, but also appeared to be yery
Jealous and possessive - so muoh so that latterly she would
not even allow tho child to visit her own family.
The Qadhio were asked to pay What the legal position
was under Islamic Law, although tfto QOurt considered that

the paramount question was really the child*e own best interests.
The Bhera Court said that they were unable to advise on law
applicable to the Hanafi seot, to whiah the parties (like
most Pakistanis) belonged, but they went to considerable
trouble and wore most so-operative in obtaining the opinion,
of certain learned men in Arabia vorsed in the Hanafi sect.

The general tenor of this was that the father had tho best
right, and as tho Court considered that this also coincided
with the child's interests, it so ordered.

Criminal Jurisdiction
There were twenty five cases in 1954* Apart from

one case of Shopbreaking by Night, tried by Sessions, there
wore no cases of real gravity. This is also the experience
of the Bahrain Courts, and the rarity of serious crime in
Bahrain is oertuinly very creditable to all communities.
There were also few traffic cases this year, but it is

frankly the Court's view that thin is less attributable to
unfailing compliance with the law, than to lack of police
activity. Such offences as exceeding the speed limit and
contraventions of lighting regulations are universal,
/though